I’m getting my mind absolutely blown by Lucius Seneca’s writings right now.  One of the concepts he talks about is the amount of time wasted on gaining attention and praise for ourselves.  He calls it by it’s awesome name…

GLORY.

Problem is, all the glory and honour and praise are His.  God’s.  Forever.  On earth and in heaven.  From beginning to end.  So why do we even bother?

Maybe you think you’re immune to glory-gathering.  See if any of these fit you:

• Have you ever not passed so that you could score the winning goal, sink a shot, shoot the puck, deak a defender, or run in the touchdown?
• Have you ever shared your class marks with others, taken the lead on a group project, entered your work in a competition?
• Have you ever judged your worth as a speaker by the size of the attendance?
• Have you ever worked out just to look good?  Do you wear certain clothes just to attract attention to your ‘finer details’?
• Have you ever bought gifts, taking a friend out to eat, paid for drinks, just to get a round of thank-you’s?
• Have you ever volunteered or helped at church just because it made you feel good and put you ‘above’ the common people?
• How many men went off to wars and died for glory?
• How many musicians waste their lives in pursuit of fame?
• How many writers simply wish to be immortal?
• How many athletes long for the hall of fame?
• How many pastors just want to run huge churches?
• How many businessmen want to be the richest person ever?
• How many rich people start foundations named after themselves?

We long for worth but we settle for trophies.  We desperately seek love, but we settle for attention.  We desire for intimacy, but we settle for admiration.  We hope for fulfillment, but we settle for glory.

Glory that cannot and should not be ours.  A glory that should be directed at, pointed to, and lifted up to the King of kings and the Lord of lords.  And it is only when our glory has faded, and His has been increased, that we find all that we were looking for…IN HIM.

Three years ago I traveled across Canada for four weeks. We started in Hamilton and went East to New Brunswick and then all the way out to Vancouver. We camped for free anywhere we could. Including the side of Hwy 1, Dirt and gravel roads, peoples backyards, behind sheds, cottages, always looking for the ideal “grassy knoll”.

When we got to Victoria we were God’s lost children found. We stayed with a family we knew for three nights! In REAL BEDS!!!

One of the coolest moments for us was the Sunday we were there. We had plans to cross the border and head to Seattle to Mars Hill Church to hear Mark Driscoll preach. There was only one thick line stopping us. The border.

You see we’d had some “incidents” as only four 18 year old men can have along the way. One of us lost their only Visual ID while bungee jumping in Ottawa. All he had was a piece of paper (Literally an 8×11 paper) that was his health card. Another of us was a landed Immigrant (from Texas) who only had a driver’s license. Well we pulled up to that red line (all of us were praying, and sweating at this point) and handed over our shameful identification to the officer.

He grilled us on our ID and asked to search the car. We had no clue what was coming.

You see we had pulled all of our gear out of the car and left it at the house. Everything but the NINE cans of propane we had been using for cooking. No camping equipment, no grill, nothing but 9 cans of propane in the back of a nice looking Jetta with 4 man-boys from Ontario claiming: “we’re going to church”. Wow. We had no chance.

Can you remember the last time you felt like we did? You know…threatened, cornered, coerced, and even, helpless.

You immediately feel the adrenaline flowing as your preparing to either get out of there or “stand your ground”.

I wonder if Jesus was ever in moments like that. Somewhere Unsafe.

There are numerous times where Jesus is in mortal danger. The Religious leaders of the day ready to kill him. In fact one time. Jesus came upon some men who were about to stone a woman. It says they brought her out and told him she was caught in the act of adultery (only her?) for which the penalty is death by stoning (they bent the law a little bit as it was required she be a betrothed virgin with eye witness evidence against her and if proved true both parties were to be executed not just the girl… hmm. (Dt 22:23-24, Lev. 20:10, Dt 22:22). The other interesting piece of information here is that the State of Israel (Where the Jewish nation lives) was under Roman control and under that control the Jews were not permitted to perform any death sentences. So here’s Jesus. Trapped in a sense. The two options given to him are to take part in nothing short of murder or deny the validity of the law given by God as interpreted by some twisted religious people. What’s his answer?

He writes in the sand looks up and says Whoever has no sin can throw the first stone. Then goes back to write more in the ground. And one by one they leave. Dropping their stones.

How safe do you think that woman felt? Like being back in the arms of her mother I bet. She had a man who didn’t know her stand up to a posse of grown men bent on doing “God’s work”.

Where are you in the midst of this story?
How do you treat women?
How do you treat your friends?
Are you safe?

I once heard a very informative line. It said that it can be quite delusional to try and identify where you are? It said the only way to not lie to yourself about that question is to ask the next question. Where are you headed? If you stay on the path you’re on where does it lead?

The four of us in that car were not safe (according to U.S. customs).

And somehow the officer still let us over the border… Ridiculous, I know.

We do that to ourselves to don’t we. Let in habits that aren’t safe, people, relationships. And what do we end up with? We become Unsafe. Manipulative, aggressive, with psychological, and relationship issues.

Jesus drew the line. He knew what was right (like we often do). He defended a woman against an angry mob. Have you ever done that? Defend the disabled kid getting teased, or the “fat” kid? If you want God to bless you with a wife someday you must become a safe person. If you don’t all you’re doing is exporting your disease.
There’s sin’s of commission. That is say, lying, stealing, cheating etc. But guys- there are also sins of OMISSION. Not stepping forward with the truth, ignoring abuse around you, walking away. Don’t be a coward! God will not bless you so you can abuse others and yourself. 1 Peter 3:7 says “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker (who would win in a fist fight?) partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers”.

Gentlemen, Now you know. Anything from here on out is now your responsibility. Pray that God would prepare you, restore you, and protect you.

Be safe.

Richard

It’s such a simple task, and accomplishes so much. I watched a podcast by LifeChurch.tv and Craig Groschel gave the challenge to his church: just tell your story. God will use your story.

The way that you come to Christ will touch someone’s life. Every time I am asked to tell my testimony, whether it’s a youth group or a church service on Sunday morning, I have to ask God to lead me to cross and humble me. Make me realize that it’s about the other person, and I have to speak to the audience as if I am talking to one person, individually. I went through what I did for a reason, so have you. God will use your story.

But it’s more than just being asked to share your testimony- it’s wanting to share it at all times.  If you’re ashamed to tell your story- figure out why.  I’ve been using the boldness of Christ to start doing this at work.  It’s changing ME!

Maybe it means you write it here in the comments section.  Maybe you get baptized and proclaim it there.  Maybe you start a blog or write a short story or poem or song and then share it with others.  Maybe it means you put it up on YouTube.  Start somewhere.

So don’t be afraid. Don’t hold it back. Just tell it like it is. There are people in the audience who will be addicted to porn, sex, drugs …. but also small things, like gossip, lying, self-centredness, passiveness. It doesn’t matter what your deal is. Just say it. God will use your story.

So I challenge you: don’t be afraid to tell your story. It doesn’t matter how crazy or extravagent it is or whether it’s just short and brief:

God will use your story… because He wrote it.

Aaron

I saw a status update from someone on my Facebook friend list…You tell me what’s wrong with this profile:

Gentlemen, I’m mad about something.  How many of you are only Christians because that’s how you were raised?  How many of you are planning to throw it away as soon as it’s inconvenient?

How many of you love the culture, but not the lifechange?  How many of you rarely prayer?  Never crack open a Bible?  Walk with God?  How many of you are just playing ‘Christ-follower’?

Did you ever truly make a commitment to Christ?  Do you actually love Jesus?  Do you even see God as your father?  Or are you just in it for the girls?  The glory?  The stage or the platform?  For the opportunities?  For the chance to wash away the guilt of your sin every Sunday?

Is God a priority at all?  Does He have a place in your life and schedule?  First place?  Or is He an afterthought?  Does God have an honoured place in your life whatsoever at all?  Or is your life one big COMPROMISE?

When will you walk away?  When will your turn away?  When will you turn your back?  What will it take?  What are you made of?  Are you playing the game?  Are you faking?  Are you lying?

I am.  I’ll be honest.  I’m there.  I walk that tightrope every day.  I’m at war inside me.  It’s a raging furnace.  It’s a vicious war.  I want to do good, but I do evil.  But you can’t just be honest.  That doesn’t excuse your sin.  Just because we’ve sinned doesn’t mean it’s okay to boast about it, be proud about it, or continue in it.

You have to care.  You have to try.  You have to fight.  You have to desire.  You have to be changing.  You have to be battling.  You have to be asking for help.  You have to be Spirit-led.  You have to be relying on Him.  You have to be leaning heavily on His strength.  You have to realize you’re broken and busted and hurt and losing.  Then you’ll start to live in victory.

And that’s where I’m at.

1 John 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

I was sitting in the service at my church this morning, not really paying attention.. I was going through excuses in my head as for why I should just tune out what was going on in the service, but then a man named Sandy went on stage and gave his testimony and from then I not only paid attention, I was almost in tears listening to his story.

At one point he was talking about how the love of Jesus really helped to change his life and change him from the direction he was going in life, and this is what I got from it:

Our anger is what whipped His back, but HE loves us. Our worry spat in His face, but HE loves us. Our pride drove the nails in his hands and feet, but HE loves us. Our greed put the thorns on His head, but HE loves us. And our lust put the spear in His side, but He loves us. We didn’t believe, we doubted, we mocked but Christ died and rose again so that HE could pay for what we did to Him and so that we can spend eternal life in Heaven instead of hell where we should be!

Jesus Loves us more then we can imagine, and just so ya’ll know, it’s what HE said!

Ben